Micah's Read of the Week, Vol. 51
The unvaccinated, Austin's wild real estate market, ESPN's NBA coverage is trash, Recipe Corner, and more.
Hello, and welcome to Micah’s Read of the Week.
This is a newsletter filled with things Micah Wiener finds interesting.
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Get the vaccine, please
I know that I can’t control what other people choose to do. I know this. But, damnit people. This piece about Springfield, Missouri is absolutely heartbreaking. The delta variant is ravaging this Missouri city. Many residents are still wary of vaccines:
The worst of the pandemic seemed behind Mercy Hospital, those weeks last winter when the coronavirus wards were full of people struggling to breathe.
But after months of reprieve, the virus has come roaring back, sending unvaccinated young adults and middle-aged patients from across southwest Missouri there in droves as the highly transmissible delta variant tears through the region. The hospital has been treating more than 130 covid-19 patients each day since Sunday — more than the winter surge — and had to open a sixth ward. It came close to running out of ventilators earlier this month.
“We’re just very disheartened. This was all pretty avoidable,” said Wanda Brown, a nurse unit manager. “Last year, we were looking forward to the vaccine coming out because we really thought that that was going to be helpful for our community. We feel like we’ve taken giant leaps backward.”
Springfield, a city of 170,000 nestled in the Ozarks, has become a cautionary tale for how the more transmissible delta variant, now estimated to account for half of all new cases nationwide, can ravage poorly vaccinated communities and return them to the darkest days of the pandemic.
“It’s a sad reality that we are facing,” said Katie Towns, the acting health director. “I don’t think we are coming out of it anytime soon. We are going to see more people get really sick. We are going to see a lot of people die.”
Here comes the devastating part:
Katlyn Mozingo, a 19-year-old rising sophomore at Springfield-based Missouri State University, carries the guilt of almost certainly infecting her mother.
But the coronavirus came home after Katlyn contracted a mild case after hanging out with a friend who also tested positive. Leanne wore a mask as she brought her daughter vegan chicken strips and would disinfect the bathroom regularly with Lysol. After her daughter recovered, Leanne’s throat began to ache. She started regularly using oxygen she would normally only use at night for her sleep apnea.
After waking up in the middle of the night screaming for help because she couldn’t breathe, Leanne was taken to a hospital by ambulance. Within days, she was on a ventilator.
She embraced her sedated mother one last time on June 27 before doctors removed the ventilator. Her brother, DJ, who has autism and relied on his mother as a primary caregiver, watched their mother die on FaceTime from the hospital parking lot, unable to step inside because he was also infected.
“I keep on telling everyone she’s going to come home in a week, and we are going to be a big family again,” Katlyn Mozingo said. “We as young people don’t understand, because we feel like we are healthy and next thing you know, you get it, and you give it to your mom and she passes.”
On a Friday evening, Leanne Mozingo’s family gathered in the home where wilted flowers rested on the mantel and grief started to give way to planning life without her.
DJ, 22, who has struggled to process the loss of his mother and biggest support system, has been turning more to his grandmother, sister and his mother’s longtime boyfriend, Justin Brown, as he navigates adulthood with autism. The family needs to find a new home, unable to pay the $1,400 rent without Leanne’s disability payments. They plan to hold a garage sale to downsize and raise money for a move.
Brown unenthusiastically got his shots after his employer offered two hours of pay for each dose.
“I just kind of thought covid in general was a joke and you hear stories about how it had a 97 percent survival rate,” said Brown, 27. “I was around covid in the thick of it for the better part of 30 days, and I’m vaccinated and never got a single symptom.”
He added: “Maybe you are getting chipped or all these other conspiracies they’re talking about. But at the end of the day, it’s clearly doing something.”
Good lord. Get the damn shot.
There are a million other heartbreaking examples in the news this week. I can’t bring myself to break them all down, but here’s a sampling of headlines:
Delta Is Driving a Wedge Through Missouri
For America as a whole, the pandemic might be fading. For some communities, this year will be worse than last.
Vaccine hesitancy morphs into hostility, as opposition to shots hardens
“Clearly they were hoping — the government was hoping — that they could sort of sucker 90 percent of the population into getting vaccinated,” activist Alex Berenson told the crowd Saturday, seeming to inflate Biden’s target. “And it isn’t happening.”
The crowd clapped and cheered at that failure.
What began as “vaccine hesitancy” has morphed into outright vaccine hostility, as conservatives increasingly attack the White House’s coronavirus message, mischaracterize its vaccination campaign and, more and more, vow to skip the shots altogether.
The notion that the vaccine drive is pointless or harmful — or perhaps even a government plot — is increasingly an article of faith among supporters of former president Donald Trump, on a par with assertions that the last election was stolen and the assault on the U.S. Capitol was overblown.
Opinion: The U.S. is backsliding on covid-19. Republicans seem to have decided that’s acceptable.
In the last two weeks of June, the United States averaged between 11,250 and 13,500 new coronavirus cases per day — the lowest numbers since the virus began spreading widely across the country in early 2020. As of Saturday, it was 31,464 cases per day. With multiple vaccines widely available, this rise was entirely preventable. The backsliding is due in part to Republican politicians and right-wing commentators who have spread misinformation about the virus, as well as colleagues too scared to confront them.
Opinion: We’re becoming two Americas: One healthy, one deliberately at risk
For many years, it has been fashionable to point out that there are “two Americas” — one blue, one red; one urban, one rural; one evangelical, one non-religious; one college-educated, one not. However, we risk adding a lethal new point of comparison: one America protected from covid-19 and largely back to normal, and one at continued peril.
Red states’ vaccination rates are lagging behind those of blue states, with predictable results.
“Adjusted for population, nearly six times as many people died in South Dakota from covid-19 as in Vermont (230 per 100,000 in South Dakota compared to just 40 per 100,000 in Vermont). In real numbers, while about 250 Vermont residents died from the disease, more than 2,000 South Dakotans died,” Ashish K. Jha, the dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, wrote in an op-ed for The Post, offering the states as contrasting examples of how vaccines make the pandemic less dangerous. “And as of today, Vermont has a lower unemployment rate, suggesting that there need not be any trade-off between public health and the economy.”
Get the fucking shot. Do it for yourself. Do it for your family. Just do it. Thanks.
Inside Austin’s Wild Real-Estate Market: Homes going $850,000 above asking and 96 offers in one weekend.
Things are crazy here. I work in lending (much more on that in the weeks to come) and all day, every day we hear talk about this market. There’s a lot going on and no one is sure when or if it will slow down.
It reminds me of a trip I took to San Francisco a few years back. Everywhere I went, every conversation was about one topic: housing prices. My uber drivers, the women at the nail salon, the bartenders, hotel guests, everybody. “Everything is so expensive,” “I have to commute 90 minutes each way,” “Prices have doubled in two years,” “I’d like to buy, but it’s so overwhelming.”
We’re there now in Austin.
Most experts agree that Austin’s real-estate market is the craziest in the country right now. According to the Austin Board of Realtors (ABoR), median home prices hit a record $465,000 this month — the fourth straight month it’s set a record, and fifth out of the past six. Year over year, prices are up more than 42 percent and well above pre-pandemic prices, too. And while the organization says housing inventory is “critically low,” more than $2.3 billion was spent on Austin area housing in May alone. And supply is having trouble keeping up with demand — as of May, the monthly housing inventory had less than a months’ worth of inventory, meaning only enough houses to sate the market for two weeks. There were 4,413 listings that month; but there were also 4,355 houses pending sales. And as of June 29, ABoR only had 1,116 houses listed.
As things stand now, the average time a house spends on the market is just 15 days. A year ago, it was two months. And that’s the average — a desirable home will likely get snatched up much faster. “There are times when an offer deadline is set for Sunday or Monday after being listed during the week, so you think you have all weekend to see it,” Richard says. “But the sellers may get a killer offer and decide to accept prior to the deadline — and now your clients who were planning to see it on Sunday missed out.” Richard estimates that the average house still receives five to 20 offers during this truncated window, and relays a story about a home in Brushy Creek — a nice enough area in nearby Cedar Park, but hardly aughts-era Williamsburg in terms of trendiness or desirability — receiving 96 offers in one weekend. “Totally insane,” he says.
And this only counts properties on the open market. Private sales, which typically involve higher-end houses, don’t factor into those numbers at all. This includes homes sold directly by builders, who aren’t required to report their figures to the realtor board, according to ABoR president, Susan Horton. She cites a much-talked-about house on Lake Austin, popular with the ultra-wealthy, that recently sold for roughly $39 million to an unknown owner, likely a record for the city. Which means that these numbers probably understate just how frenzied the market actually is.
I remember that weekend in the Bay Area, many of those Uber drivers, bartenders, and hotel guests kept asking me about Austin and Texas. Apparently, many of them decided to move here:
Horton identifies three types of people who suddenly got the itch to buy a house: Families who felt penned up in their current ones; millennials who saved up money while living with their parents or in an apartment; expats from California and elsewhere looking for a desirable yet (relatively) affordable place to live, in a state with, again, no income tax. “And with that, the money came with it,” she says. Buyers, particularly those from out of state, “saw the value of a home based on where they were coming from, and they were more than willing to pay the difference. And therefore, the bidding frenzy started.”
The frenzy isn’t just contained in the Austin Metro area. The far-out suburbs are seeing unprecedented real estate scenarios too.
“I’m writing 20 to 30 offers a week,” says Horton, “and I might get one accepted. That’s amazing. It’s amazing.” She mentions a home in nearby Manor that sat on the market for 48 days — basically, unheard of right now, and a sign that the home has “some issues,” as Horton puts it, citing a 19-year-old roof as just one example. It was listed at $345,000; Horton’s client made in offer “in the 300s.” Someone outbid them. “They probably got 375 or close to $400,000 for this home. Somebody is going to go in and do all that work — put a $10,000 or $15,000 roof on it, put a new AC system in, and flooring and paint — and they’re going to have another $20,000 or $30,000 invested in it, on top of what they’ve already paid.”
ESPN’s NBA Finals halftime “show” is 12 minutes of ads and one minute of actual analysis
I love NBA basketball. And I love nothing more than NBA coverage on TNT. It’s the best show on television and it has been for years. It’s even better in comparison to Turner’s competition at ESPN. The Worldwide Leader’s NBA coverage is stale, boring, formulaic, and generally uninteresting. Management is constantly shaking up their NBA coverage, switching talent and format almost yearly. None of it works. I haven’t watched a second of their pre-game or post-game coverage in years. And if you want to watch more than a minute of analysis at halftime, you’re out of luck.
Looking at the Game 4 halftime break, the breakdown roughly follows this pattern once halftime starts:
– 4 minutes and 30 seconds of commercials with a “thrilling moment of the game” 15 second highlight baked in the middle of it.
– Halftime crew does analysis…..for 1 total minute (with sponsor reads to follow). The breakdown of what that looks like from Bryan Curtis:
First, host Maria Taylor threw it to Jalen Rose. Rose’s spiel (saluting Devin Booker) lasted 9.86 seconds. Williams went next. He talked for 9.38 seconds about Giannis Antetokounmpo. Adrian Wojnarowski chipped in 9.93 seconds about Chris Paul. There was some sponsored “brought to you by” stuff. Then the segment was over. The editorial part lasted less than one minute.
– Another nearly 4 minutes of commercials.
– Halftime crew does about 30 seconds of highlights (sponsored)
– 4 plus minutes of commercials
– One minute of locker room video and analysis from the booth crew, and then the third quarter starts.
It’s literally impossible to have an interesting conversation in one minute.
The weirder part is the way ESPN has set up its analysts to interact with one another. Basically, they don’t. They don’t get to challenge or clarify one another’s points. They don’t nudge one another toward something interesting. They “hand off,” in a time-honored TV sense, rather than have an actual conversation.
This sucks. I understand ESPN has bills to pay, but jeez. 1 minute of “content,” and 12 minutes of commercials just sucks. And it doesn’t have to be this way.
From the end of the second quarter to the start of the third quarter, ESPN (well, ABC, but it’s an ESPN presentation/production so we’re referring to it that way) has routinely aired twelve minutes of commercials.
TNT’s halftime show during the Eastern Conference Finals was only 48% commercials, per our analysis. That’s still a lot, but at least the majority of halftime has actual content and analysis.
If you’re looking for real basketball analysis, you should check out Back Door Cover, the sports podcast I co-host with Brad Kee. Brad is in Italy this week on his honeymoon, and he looks to be having a great time.
I’ll record something to break down the finals and The Open this week. Don’t miss it. Subscribe now and get new episodes when they are released.
Recipe Corner
Hot Honey Wings
Let’s grill.
1 Tbsp. bird chile powder or cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp. Diamond Crystal or 1¾ tsp. Morton kosher salt
1 Tbsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 lb. chicken wings, patted dry
2 limes, divided
½ cup honey
1 Tbsp. fish sauce
3 Tbsp. chili crisp, plus more for serving
1 cup shishito peppers (about 8 oz.)
3–5 red Thai chiles or jalapeños, thinly sliced
¼ cup cilantro leaves with tender stems
¼ cup coarsely chopped salted dry-roasted peanuts
Mix chile powder, salt, and 1 Tbsp. black pepper in a small bowl until well combined.
Arrange chicken wings in a single layer on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Rub all over with spice mixture and let sit at room temperature at least 15 minutes, or cover and chill up to 1 day. If chilling, let sit at room temperature 1 hour before grilling.
Place a rack in middle of oven; preheat to 375°. Bake wings until slightly golden, 30–40 minutes. Remove from oven; let cool slightly.
Slice 1 lime in half and squeeze juice into a large bowl; mix in honey, fish sauce, and 3 Tbsp. chili crisp. Transfer chicken wings to bowl and toss to coat in hot honey glaze.
Prepare a grill for medium heat. Grill chicken wings and shishito peppers, turning occasionally, until chicken is deep golden brown and charred in spots and shishito peppers are blistered and charred in spots, 5–8 minutes.
Transfer chicken wings and shishito peppers to a platter; top with chiles, cilantro, and peanuts and drizzle more chili crisp over. Slice remaining lime into wedges and serve wings and shishito peppers with lime wedges for squeezing over.
Smashed Cucumber Salad
How about one more side dish to finish up that jar of tahini?
6 medium Persian cucumbers (about 1 lb.)
1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt
1 garlic clove, finely grated
¼ cup tahini
3 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. unseasoned rice vinegar
1 Tbsp. white miso
1 tsp. finely grated ginger
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. toasted sesame oil
Chili oil (for serving)
2 scallions, thinly sliced on a diagonal
1 tsp. toasted sesame seeds
Cut cucumbers in half lengthwise, then slice ¼" thick on a deep diagonal into 2"–3"-long pieces. Transfer cucumbers to a large bowl, add salt, and toss to combine. Cover and chill at least 1 hour and up to 12 hours. Drain cucumbers.
Whisk garlic, tahini, lime juice, soy sauce, vinegar, miso, ginger, sugar, and sesame oil in a small bowl to combine. Pour dressing over cucumbers and toss well to coat.
Transfer cucumber salad to a platter. Drizzle with chili oil and top with scallions and sesame seeds.
Where else can I find Micah content?
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